15s. per acre; and from whence potatoes, plums, and red currants are sent to Victoria, apples to Covent Garden, and fruit pulp all over the world.
It has been, perhaps, unfortunate for the little island that Victoria is so near. Her most busy times, and periods of expanding trade, have twice been associated with an actual depletion of both capital and population; once in the years after 1835, when the first settlement of Victoria by colonists from Tasmania took place (for not only was Melbourne planted by Batman and Fawkner, but Portland, the first town in Victoria, was founded, as we have seen, by Henty, and the best stations of the Western District were taken up by Tasmanian squatters), and secondly in 1853, when another emigration to Port Phillip was stimulated by the gold discoveries. The last expansion of trade, in 1885, unlike the two former, is marked by a growth, still continuing, in capital and population, due to the increasing output of copper, gold, silver, and tin; all of which, in the order named, are contributing to the colony's prosperity. But there has been no rush. Few enough Tasmanians were on "the long trail" when Coolgardie broke out in 1893 and 1894: and few of the migratory crowd which made Ccolgardie have, now that their day is over, been able to reconcile themselves to the calm atmosphere of Tasmania. You may find them in the Transvaal, in Pekin, or at Singapore, but not at Zeehan or Mount Lyall. Which, perhaps, may be all the better for Tasmania; whose progress, for the rest, though sure, is likely to be less slow in the future, especially after Federation. The opening of the great markets of Melbourne and Sydney to her fruit and vegetables will make a great deal of difference to the island colony. Under the Crown Lands Act of 1890 first-class agricultural waste lands of the Crown may be
